1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a method and apparatus to generate a preview image, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus to generate a preview image using a driver program having a soft-proofing function.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, since a display monitor and a printer have color presenting modes that are different from each other, an image displayed on the display monitor may appear different from an image printed by the printer. For example, the display monitor presents colors in an RGB color mode while the printer presents colors in a CMYK color mode. Accordingly, when printing the image displayed on the display monitor using an output device, such as the printer, a color matching operation is required for converting an RGB color signal input from the display monitor to a CMYK color signal to be used in the printer.
Typically, a separate application program for supporting a soft-proofing function such as ‘Photoshop’ of Adobe Systems Inc., ‘Photo-paint’ of Corel Corporation, etc., is typically used to confirm the color of an image to be printed, before printing the image displayed on the display monitor. The soft-proofing function converts the RGB color signal of the display monitor to the CMYK color signal of the printer using a monitor profile and a printer profile, and enables a user to confirm a result of the conversion using the display monitor before submitting a print command to perform a printing operation.
When using the application program, the color of printed objects can be estimated through a preview screen before the image that is displayed on the display monitor is printed by the printer.
However, since a color matching operation performed by the application program is different from the color matching operation performed by the printer, it is difficult to accurately estimate a result of the printing. For example, the application program that provides the soft-proofing function performs the color matching operation by setting rendering intents irrespective of types of objects (e.g., text, graphics, image, etc.) contained in a document to be printed. By contrast, the printer performs the color matching operation by setting the rendering intents to match characteristics of respective objects contained in the document to be printed. Accordingly, although the application program that provides the soft-proofing function is used, it is difficult to accurately estimate the result of the printing with respect to a document having several different types of objects mixed therein.